''Star Soldier'' is a line of {{Vertical Scrolling Shooter}}s by HudsonSoft. The series started in the 1980s as a SpiritualSuccessor to {{Tecmo}}'s ''Star Force''. The games are characterized by their distinct power-up weapons.

A HudsonSoft game that could be considered as a spinoff is ''Hector [[AnnualTitle '87]]'', also known as ''Starship Hector''. It differs from all other ''Star Soldier'' games by being set on Earth and scrolling horizontally in its even-numbered stages, but was the first game to feature the 2-minute and 5-minute "Caravan" modes found in the later ''Star Soldier'' games.

NeedsWikiMagicLove.----!!Tropes appearing in these games:* AwesomeButImpractical: In ''Vanishing Earth'', the green ship. How cool is it that its Ex-Arms consist of shooting green electricity everywhere, and throwing a freakin' stream of green fire towards the enemy? Problem is, it's the slowest ship, it's Rolling is the shortest, and its main weapon, while it covers pretty much everything in the horizontal field in front of you, is as a result the weakest one since all its damage is spread out rather than focused.* BossRush: ''Boss On Parade'' in the remake for PSP* ContentWarning: Presumably in order to deter ItsShortSoItSucks, the purchase page for ''Star Soldier R'' gives you a warning ''in red text'' that the game only features 2- and 5-minute modes.* HomingProjectile: Played straight in which some of the enemies fire blue energy balls that magnetically lock on to the player's ship unless you move away from them.* PauseScumming: [[DefiedTrope Not in Caravan modes!]] [[NoFairCheating The timer will continue to run down while the game is paused.]]* ScoringPoints: The main campaign modes have scoring systems. Then there's the "Caravan" modes--2- and 5-minute modes where you fly through a unique stage and destroy as many enemies and tiles as you can to earn points.* SelfPlagiarism: The UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy game ''Vertical Force'' (also developed by Hudson Soft) is very similar to the original game despite not being nominally part of the series.* TimedMission: The Caravan modes.----